Interim show 'The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic' confirmed to debut ahead of Rivers of Light

Wdw62114

Well-Known Member
Well I just cancelled my jungle book dining package. That show looks extremely disappointing. I was expecting more impressive water projectors and lights.If that the extent of the water elements other than the barges for ROL, Im going to be extremely disappointed with that too. Time will tell. What a shame though because the amount of time it took for them to build that outdoor theater, I guess I was expecting closer to WOC effects
 

Atomicmickey

Well-Known Member
Sigh.

Disney used to be "HOW did they do THAT?"

Now, it seems, they are "WHY did they do THAT?"

Not since Stitch's stage in Tomorrowland has there been something so underwhelming . . .
Wasn't there another thing that lasted only a couple of performances?

I feel that creative is under such budget strain these days. They don't shoot for the stars
anymore, they just look to fill a time slot.

Perhaps RoL will eventually fix this. Let's hope so.
 

Cletus

Well-Known Member
Absolutely correct. At no time did Disney ever suggest this was another World of Color; it was never intended to be that. If you created that expectation on your own, then you set yourself up for disappointmen; not Disney.
Not exactly. Disney set the people up by offering FP+ and Dining packages for this "thing". Of course people are going to expect something similar to WOC or F!....this is on Disney.
 

donsullivan

Premium Member
Sigh.

Disney used to be "HOW did they do THAT?"

Now, it seems, they are "WHY did they do THAT?"

Not since Stitch's stage in Tomorrowland has there been something so underwhelming . . .
Wasn't there another thing that lasted only a couple of performances?

I feel that creative is under such budget strain these days. They don't shoot for the stars
anymore, they just look to fill a time slot.

Perhaps RoL will eventually fix this. Let's hope so.

Kind of unfair to suggest they aren't shooting for the stars when doing so introduced technical difficulties delaying the opening of Rivers of Light. This show isn't RoL, nor was it intended to be. They were tasked on extremely short notice to pull together and outdoor entertainment while the challenges with RoL are resolved. The team was successful in achieving that on very short notice.
 

TTA94

Well-Known Member
So how did the seating work? Are you allowed to pick the row you want? And did anyone find its better to be closer to the water or up higher?
 

Atomicmickey

Well-Known Member
Kind of unfair to suggest they aren't shooting for the stars when doing so introduced technical difficulties delaying the opening of Rivers of Light. This show isn't RoL, nor was it intended to be. They were tasked on extremely short notice to pull together and outdoor entertainment while the challenges with RoL are resolved. The team was successful in achieving that on very short notice.

My suggestion would be to wait until everything is ready and then open the park late.
Sounds like the nighttime safari isn't ready, either.
I'm sure this will make them extra money, so, yay.
 

hpyhnt 1000

Well-Known Member
Wind was 4 to 5 mph last night during the show, which is typical for most nights in the summer. If it cant perform in those conditions then it shouldn't have been installed.

The two large center screens were not meeting in the middle to the form the intended semi-circle. The center section was then missing, with nothing being shown in that part of the screen.

Of all the issues about this production - it's a temporary show thrown together in about 3 weeks, and it looks it honestly - those main projection fountains are what concerned me the most. Those are hardware for RoL and look to be one of the main elements of the show (you see them featured in every sneak peak/behind the scenes video). If they can't perform in even a light wind then the show designers need to very quickly figure out a different solution.

The temporary Jungle Book show is what it is (meh overall judging from videos and reactions). But not accounting for a light breeze when designing the projection screens is baffling and, frankly, unacceptable. It's an outdoor show in Florida - a basic requirement is planning for wind.
 

Cletus

Well-Known Member
I mean they offered FP+ for Captain EO too so really is that a fair comparison for setting up people's expectations?
They shouldn't have FP+ for ANY attraction, but that is another argument. The fact that they attached a Dining Package to this "thing" is enough to lead people to expect something more than it turned out to be. Those expectations were created by Disney's other Dining Package shows.
 

Brenthodge

Well-Known Member
the projections might be better with ROL since they are designed specifically for the screens in question where as the jungle book scenes are edited lifts from a feature film designed, lit and shot to be shown on a much different surface. I would hope the scale, brightness and detail orpf the ROL imagery takes into account the type of projection surface. It looked like from the previews it was much bolder and relied less on detail to be "read".
 

Magic Feather

Well-Known Member
So, I know almost everyone has chipped in, but still, here are my two cents.
1. I get that it was windy, but the water projections need to be fixed or redone... At the end of the show there was a gorgeous effect where they projected on the trees by Flame Tree, and it worked brilliantly! If they could transfer all water projections to the trees, it would make the show a bit better in my (jungle) book.
2- The performers and musicians were great and gave it their all! There were points where the audience clapped solely for them.
3- While the four barges directly connected to the land were high energy, visible, and quite enjoyable to watch, the same can not be said for the barges in the back, there were minimal dancers on them and they were a bit too far off to see anyway. Same goes for the singers, who due to staging, no one could fully see.
4- Those transitions were awkward as heck, seriously.
5- In general, the three singers should have introduced the show lion king style and say that "We are storytellers, come to show you the story of a boy and his adventures in the jungle, and to show you how this story is truly alive with magic" All should have entered on separate fantastic barges and should have been on their respective barge until the finale where they could board a center, round, stage which would be the only one far out from the water.
6- Keep the fire segment, it was very nice.

In general I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars, probably something I would see again, but nothing I would go out of my way to do.
 

Seabasealpha1

Well-Known Member
After watching that "non night-time spectacular", I have two thoughts:

1. The Country Bear Jamboree Rocks!

2. I'd rather watch a root canal procedure on YouTube...

I get that it's not a big end of the night Kabang...

But wow...
 

donsullivan

Premium Member
So how did the seating work? Are you allowed to pick the row you want? And did anyone find its better to be closer to the water or up higher?

Seating was a little confusing at first since it was hard to understand the mechanics of how it was working

Standby Line was over in Dinoland starting immediately past the large Dinosaur you walk under and stretching back along the path. I was in FP so didn't experience the load process from there.

FastPass line (at least for 2nd show) was over in Asia starting right around the entrance to Kali and stretching back along the trail toward the exit of Jungle Trek and winding back. I was in 2nd show. It's not clear if they do this the same way for the first show; I just didn't see that. It was very difficult to figure out the mechanics of using FP for this at least for the first night. They clearly did have a plan, it just wasn't really easy for guests to figure out what the plan was.

Once the audience from the theater emptied, they routed us along the trail and then along the river up to the entrance gates. They loaded the area closest to center stage first and then after that gets full, open the set of doors over to their right and began bringing the FP guests in thru that gateway. We were directed down a specific aisle as the one to our left filled but they did not constrain what row we selected. We picked a row in the middle of the upper section and just slid to the middle and the CM's had no issues.

A couple of things I noted in the FP seating area is that the rows feel pretty close to one another front to back. They didn't have a whole lot of real estate to work with there so I'm sure this was a practical compromise. However, the actual benches themselves are quite deep which might just be creating the illusion of being closer due to larger seat tops. The lower section of seating is at a slightly steeper angle of pitch (height between level of one row and seats and the ones behind it) and the benches have stone tops. The upper section is a slightly more shallow pitch and have wooden benches.
 
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